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BEIRUT, January 25, 2009 – The gay community in Lebanon
is angry this weekend. And so are human rights groups, according to two
local French language web sites.

The anger is over the savage public beating of two men by
soldiers in Sassine Square, Achrafieh
in eastern part of Beirut, on Thursday evening.

The two men, thinking they were out of sight, were
“engaged in lovemaking, in the lobby of an uninhabited building”,
L’Orient Le Jour website reports. The website of LGBT rights group
Helem carries the same French language report.

Discovering the two men in action, the Lebanese army
soldiers subjected the pair to a summary beating in the street.

The report said that the two men were subject to
“punching, kicking, rifle butts, insults, humiliation”, says the report
which was originated by the ALEF (Association
Libanaise pour l’Education
et la Formation) human rights group..

The beating only ends when bystanders start condemning
the action by the Army.

Held overnight by troops, the two men were reported
transferred to the Hobeiche barracks, on the order of Attorney General.

Barracks, as L’Orient Le Jour notes, is “known not
to be particularly kind to prisoners”.

ALEF notes that “both men had sinned recklessly, even by
mistake”. But the group questions the “barbaric and unacceptable reaction
of the soldiers facing the display of homosexuality”.

“But should we beat them and treat them like this?

“It is high time that the country’s lawmakers are looking
at an obsolete law, ridiculous and totally from another era, that condemns
and punishes homosexuality in Lebanon.

“At a time when gay marriage is permitted in many
countries, the authorities hypocritically deny the simplest expression of a
reality that [exists],” ALEF says.

Lebanese Gay
Group Helem Wins 2009 Felipa de Souza Award. Helem, the first
organisation in the Arab world to set up a gay and lesbian community centre,
has won this year’s Felipa de Souza Award, the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) announced today. (UK Gay News,
January 23, 2008)